Divided We Die
by Philip S
Summary: 5th in Angelic Face Series. Thanks to the magic of the demon Toth Angela has been split into her female human and male vampire half. Angelus, stronger and more psychotic than ever, wants to kill his human self to achieve total freedom. Can Buffy stop him?
1. Part 1 of 3

Divided We Die, Part 1 (#5 in Angelic Face Series)

by Philip S.

Summary: The Gypsies' curse has returned Angelus' soul and turned him into a woman. Now calling herself Angela, she is recruited by the Powers That Be to help the Slayer, Buffy Summers. Drusilla, looking for the return of her daddy, uses the magic of the demon Toth and splits Angela in two. Angelus is back, freed of his soul, while his human half, Angela, finally confesses to Buffy her true feelings. Now Buffy has to figure out her own feelings, at the same time protecting Angela from Angelus, who wants to rid himself of his human half.

Spoilers: General spoilers for the Buffy S2 episodes "Passion" and "Becoming", though this is an AU. You should have read the earlier stories in the Angelic Face series

Disclaimer: The Buffy characters belong to Joss Whedon. Angela is mine, as is the story. No profit will be made from this.

Rating: PG-13, just like the show

#

There was something incredibly important she had to do. She remembered that much. Something so important that ... that ...

God, it hurt so much. Why did it hurt so much? Did she deserve this? All the lies over these many months, all the torture she had helped inflict on an innocent. Was this the payback then? To be in so much pain, to be a prisoner here in the darkness when there was something so very important that she had to do?

She had to tell them. Somehow she had to tell them.

But how?

#

Buffy softly knocked on the door to the hospital room, peeking through the gap. The scenery was unchanged from when she had been here just yesterday. The same as it had been all of the last three days. There she was, lying in her bed, looking so incredibly fragile and hurt. The many-colored bruises were beginning to heal, leaving her almost as pale as the sheets around her.

The constant beeping of the machines she was hooked up to was the only sound in the room.

Giles still sat next to her bed, clutching her limp hand. He wore the same clothes as yesterday, probably the day before that as well, his cheeks covered with beard stubble. There were dark rings under his eyes and it looked like he had been crying. A lot.

"How is she?" Buffy asked, walking over to put a hand on his shoulder.

It was sheer luck that Jenny was alive at all, they both knew that. They didn't know why she had been in the school so late, but Angelus had been there, too. Buffy still cringed whenever she even thought the name. To think that this vile creature was a part of Angela ...

No! No thinking of Angela right now! Too confusing! Much too confusing!

Buffy had swung by the school library that night to return Giles' book to him. He still had to ward his own apartment against Angelus' entry. That was when she had heard the screams. She had arrived just in time; the vampire had already had his fangs buried in Jenny's neck.

Fighting him off had been anything but easy, he seemed much stronger than Angela had ever been. He also knew how Buffy fought; they had sparred together more times than she could count. But in the end he had retreated, a smirk on his face, warning her that this was just the beginning.

Everything between his running off and arriving at the hospital was a blur for Buffy. She didn't remember calling the paramedics, but apparently she had. Jenny had barely been alive by the time they finally came. Buffy dimly recalled pressing her hands to the gaping wound in Jenny's neck, remembered trying to keep her broken body together by sheer force of will.

Giles had arrived only minutes after they had carted her off to the operating room, more frantic and worried than she had ever seen him. By that time Buffy herself had been pretty much in shock and the rest of the Scooby Gang had found them huddled together in the waiting room with no news on Jenny's condition.

They operated on her for nearly ten hours straight until her life was out of danger. Though whether she would ever regain consciousness was another matter. Apparently Angelus had beaten her within an inch of her life before he even started draining her.

"No change, I'm afraid." Giles sighed, putting his own hand on top of hers where it rested on his shoulder. "She ... they say she probably isn't feeling any pain right now."

Buffy nodded, knowing that Giles needed to believe that right now. The entire affair with Angelus and Angela had driven a wedge between Giles and Jenny; her keeping secrets from him had wounded him deeply. It didn't change the fact, though, that he loved her. Deeply.

Buffy wondered what it would be like to be that certain of her feelings.

"Giles, we ... the others and me, we've been talking. About Angelus. About what happened."

He barely gave a reaction, which didn't really encourage Buffy much. Wringing her hands, she went on. "We also ... well, I talked to Angela about it."

Now Giles did react. His eyes turned hard and cold as he looked up at her, almost making Buffy take a step back. She didn't know if she had ever seen him with so much cold rage inside of him.

He shook his head, visibly pushing his feelings aside.

"What ... what did she say?"

"You know this is not her doing, right?" Buffy said, deeply worried by the emotions she could see inside her Watcher. "Angela is blaming herself more than anyone else. She doesn't need any more from others."

"I ... I know, Buffy. Up here, I know." He pointed at his head. "But ..."

She understood. She understood him only too well. On the night Angelus had done this to Jenny he had also been at Buffy's house. She thanked every deity in existence that she had already warded it against his entry by that time, so her mother had been out of danger the moment she'd stepped across the threshold. It hadn't kept her safe from his ugly words, though.

Angelus had taunted her mother with intimate details about Buffy's life, things she had told her friend Angela in strict confidence. He delighted in telling Joyce about all the nights Buffy slipped out through the window to be with him (not mentioning, of course, that he had been a 'her' at that time). He even went so far as telling her that he had spent the night in Buffy's room on more than one occasion, describing the room in detail to prove his claim.

Joyce had sent him away and then turned a stern gaze toward Buffy.

Buffy shook off the memory. That hadn't been Angela, though it had hurt to hear all the things she had told her friend being turned into insults and taunts. It hadn't been Angela. And Buffy had gotten off pretty easy with her mother, all things considered. Thankfully Joyce hadn't noticed her sneaking out later that same night or Jenny would probably be dead by now.

"Angela said," Buffy forced her thoughts back to the topic at hand, "that what Angelus did to Jenny is rather ... well, untypical for him ... her ... whatever. When she was Angelus she ... I mean he ..."

"I know it's confusing, Buffy." Giles told her.

"Tell me about it! Anyway, Angelus, the old one, wasn't one for beating people up like ... that." She gestured helplessly toward Jenny. "He delighted in the more, well, subtle kinds of pain. Angela said that ... well, I didn't really want her to ... you know."

"Yes."

Hearing Angela tell them what she might have done to them ... they really didn't need that.

"It's just that this Angelus seems a lot different from the Angelus she was, or remembers being, or ... whatever."

Giles rubbed his eyes.

"He is not the Angelus she was." He said. "If the curse the Gypsies put on Angela had broken, then yes, she probably would have become the same creature she had been. But it hasn't. She was torn in two by magic. Magic we still don't fully understand. I'm afraid there is no telling exactly how this has affected Angelus. Or Angela."

It had been three months now since 'IT' had happened. They only ever referred to it that way. It. The day Angela had been split apart into a vicious, male monster and a living, female human. The day they had all learned the truth about Buffy's mysterious friend. The day Angela had confessed her true feelings for Buffy.

Angela had been a man. Still was underneath the flesh. And she loved Buffy.

She shook her head. No time for that now. No time for all the confused thoughts and feelings that never ceased to play havoc with her concentration. The matter at hand was Angelus. During those three months they had seen him but sparingly, but so far he had tried several times to get to Angela, apparently looking to kill her to make sure that his humanity would be gone for good. Buffy and the others had done their utmost to keep her safe and so far it had worked.

They hadn't managed to keep Jenny safe from him. Angelus had to be dealt with, and fast.

"Whatever he is," Buffy told Giles, squeezing his shoulders, "he will die for this, Giles. I will kill him for doing this to Jenny."

Giles nodded.

#

Kill Angelus?

Someone had said that, she was sure. Someone had talked about killing Angelus. Someone close at hand. She had to tell them. Had to tell them that they mustn't kill Angelus!

She remembered researching the magic Drusilla had used. Remembered finding out the details of the spell and how it had interacted with the curse her people had put on the vampire. She knew what would happen.

They were still one. Angelus and Angela. Two in flesh, but one in essence. One could not exist without the other. If Angelus died, so would Angela. She had to tell them that. Had to tell them before they killed Angelus.

Jenny screamed into the darkness that had captured her, but no one heard.

--------------------------------------------

Part 2

#

Buffy was patrolling thoroughly every night now, though it was getting harder and harder to sneak past her mother. Talking with her, Buffy had managed to convince her that most of what Angelus had told her was lies. Yes, she knew the guy. Yes, they had been ... close, briefly. Yes, he had seen the inside of her room. Once. But she wanted no more part of him and all the lies about her sneaking out at night every night were just a result of his pettiness.

She hated lying to her mother this way, but it couldn't be helped.

She had to get Angelus. Once they were rid of him they could concentrate on the other, less life-threatening things. Like how to right things with her mother. How to figure out her feelings for Angela.

Angela. It was strange to think of her. Before the little revelation of two months ago Buffy had considered her something very much like a big sister. A close friend and confidant. Now? Now she wasn't sure.

Angela loved her. Loved her like the man she really was. And Buffy? She knew that she felt something for Angela in return. She just wasn't sure what it was. She was drawn to the vampire, or former vampire, that much was certain. She didn't think it was sexual, though being rather inexperienced in these matters she wasn't sure about that.

Buffy had never considered herself gay before. She liked hanging out with cute boys, didn't that mean she was straight? She certainly didn't check out other girls, that much she would have noticed. Angela, though ... she just didn't know. Being around Angela gave her a good feeling; a tingling somewhere inside she had never felt with anyone else before. If anything were to happen to her, Buffy wasn't sure she would survive it.

Was that love?

She now knew what Angela looked like as a man. Angelus was that man, in body at least. Looking at him she certainly didn't feel any kind of attraction, sexual or otherwise. Though that might just be because of what he was, what he did. Looking at it neutrally she had to admit that he was quite the looker.

She couldn't imagine Angela in that body, it just didn't work. She didn't know if she would feel anything for Angela if she were back in her male body, alive or undead. This whole split identity thing was confusing enough as it was without having to figure out her feelings for the two parts. Angelus was a hotty, but a monster. Angela was the best person she had ever met, but a woman.

God, why couldn't things ever be easy?

"Musing about your inner gayness?"

The voice made her freeze. She had heard it only a few times before, but it was etched into her memory already. Mocking, taunting, nothing at all like her friend, and not just because it was a male voice.

Turning around, she saw Angelus leaning against a tombstone behind her.

"How is sweet Jenny?" He asked nonchalantly. Just two old friends chatting the night away. Right! "I hear the little Gypsy bitch is still in a coma. I really have to visit her one of these days. You know, bring a few flowers, maybe a knife or two."

"You'll never get near her or any of my friends again!" Buffy growled at him, drawing the stake from inside her jacket.

"Is that right?" He asked, still smiling. "Damn! Here I thought I'd have myself a nice little serial killer spree. Jenny was supposed to be number one, but I think now I'll have to start with someone else. Oh yeah, I know! My sweet little other half. Angela."

"I'll kill you!" Buffy moved toward him, carefully watching his every move. She was as familiar with his style of fighting as he was with hers, but he was about ten inches taller than she was used to, maybe more. Still, Angela had taken great care to remind her of all the vulnerabilities and openings she had found in Buffy's fighting style, so she should be okay.

"No more puns?" Angelus asked, surprised. "Here I thought we would trade witty banter for a while. I never really had the opportunity to do that before. Too depressed."

They circled, Buffy refusing to be drawn into his taunting. Angela had told her all about it, though the memories had been anything but pleasant for her. She wouldn't fall for his attempts to provoke her.

"Okay," Angelus shrugged, seeing that she seemed uninterested in the banter part of the fight. "Let's dance!"

This was only the third time they did battle. The first time Buffy hadn't known who he was, except for a figure that had made a brief guest appearance in one of her dreams. The second time she had been almost with insane with worry over Jenny, who'd been slowly bleeding to death while they tangled.

This time there were no distractions. She knew who she was facing and she would kill him once and for all.

#

Angela had moved into a new apartment after that night when she had faced herself. There was no telling if Angelus would need an invitation to enter a home that was, in essence, occupied only by himself. Herself. Whatever. The best bet was to move someplace Angelus didn't know of.

She shook her head. This was so bizarre. She was trying to hide from herself. Thankfully Angelus had apparently been preoccupied with other things directly after their split, so Angela had managed to change the code words and PINs for all of her bank accounts. Angelus had amassed quite a fortune in his day and though she had barely spent a cent of it after the curse, being only too aware of the blood staining this money, she didn't want her demon self to get his hands on it, either.

It was hard to believe that, until three months ago, they had been the same person. She still had the memories of all the things she had done as a vampire, but now, with that vampire running around in the night as a separate entity, it was as if those memories were but a bad dream. A nightmare from which she had woken now.

Except for the part of her still being a woman.

Angela sighed. Before this had happened she had given up hope of ever regaining her true gender. There had been times when she had almost managed to forget that she was not a woman. Times when she had been almost comfortable inside her female skin.

Everything had changed, though. The few people she had actually started to consider friends now knew who and what she really was. Or had been. They knew she was really a man. Gender had never been that important among vampires. Angelus had been a lover of both men and women in his time. Among humans, though, it was very important. Whether they did so consciously or not, people interacted differently with a man than a woman.

Xander was the prime example. It almost made her smile. She had noticed that he had been eyeing her all the time, though she did not consider it very flattering. Now that he knew she was a man ... it was just about the only funny thing about this entire state of affairs.

She was human now. That was definitely an up. Able to go out into the sunlight, to taste food, to do all the things normal humans did every day. Except she couldn't really enjoy it. She had dreamed of becoming human again, though she knew it was a hopeless dream, but that human had been male. A male human being who might one day show Buffy how very much he loved her.

It seemed that would never happen. And all the sunlight in the world didn't make that simple fact any better.

It was night now and Angela stayed at home. It was ridiculous, her being afraid to go out at night, but as Angelus had made it more than clear that he was looking to kill her, there wasn't much of a choice. She understood him. He wanted to eradicate all that was left of his humanity. The demon she remembered being could do nothing else.

The attack on Jenny had been unexpected, though, especially the way he had done it. She didn't remember a single instance in her long life in which she had beaten someone into a pulp like that. The Angelus she had been would either have killed Jenny quickly and then used her body in some elaborate setup for Giles or Buffy, or he would have drawn out the experience as long as possible, doing as little actual damage to the body as he could.

Not this new Angelus. She wondered if she could really guess what he was thinking, now that the demon was removed, if not gone from her being.

Angela's train of thoughts was abruptly interrupted when a sharp pain lanced through her belly, causing her to collapse to her knees.

"What the ...?" She began, only to be cut off when some invisible fist collided with her face. It threw her halfway across the room, stars exploding in front of her eyes.

Dazed, Angela remained prone on the floor, but her thoughts were racing a mile a minute.

Angelus was fighting Buffy, it was the only explanation. She had experienced this once before, on the night Jenny had nearly died. More, during the last three months she had experienced a multitude of sensations that did not, could not hail from anywhere but Angelus.

Orgasms. The sweet rush of warm human blood. Other sensations no human language had words for. Somehow they were still connected, causing them to share feelings. This bond seemed to grow weaker, nowhere near as intense as it had been on that first day they had been separated, but it was still there. She didn't know whether Angelus felt the things she did. The taste of chocolate. The warmth of the sun on her skin. Maybe the demon didn't know how to experience these things. Maybe he did.

She hadn't told anyone about this. Not Buffy. Not Giles. Not even Jenny, before she had been attacked. Because she had thought things through to the end.

If she experienced everything Angelus did, there was a good chance she would die once Buffy dusted him. If Buffy knew that she would probably hold back against the vampire. That was something she couldn't afford, not against someone who knew her so well.

And so Angela said nothing, only hissed in pain when she felt another impact.

#

If anything Angelus seemed even stronger than the last time. Buffy could hardly lay a hand on him, he moved so fast. The few hits she managed to get in did no visible damage while she had her hands full dodging blows that split tombstones in half. How had he gotten so strong?

Angelus forced Buffy back step by step, even as she felt tiredness seep into her bones from the prolonged battle.

"What's the matter, lover?" Angelus snarled. "Getting tired already?"

"Hardly!" The strain in her voice proved her wrong.

Angelus only laughed and swatted one of her blows aside, lashing out with his foot. Buffy was a heartbeat too slow. Moments later she found herself on her back with no clear idea how she had gotten there, feeling woozy. Angelus stood above her, fangs flashing as he grinned.

"This does not look good for our heroine." He mused. "Could this be the end of the Slayer?"

"Don't count on it, overbite!" Xander? What was Xander doing here?

Angelus flinched back as crosses were shoved into his face, giving Buffy the opportunity to rise to her feet on wobbly legs. Angelus glared at them, Xander, Willow, and Cordelia standing at Buffy's side with crosses and holy water in hand.

"We'll have to finish this another time, lover!" The vampire gave a mock bow. "Give my regards to Jenny and Angela."

With that he vanished into the night, leaving Buffy with an aching jaw and too many questions without answers.

--------------------------------------------

Part 3

#

Buffy stood in front of Angela's new apartment, trying to work up the courage to knock. It was shortly after sunrise. Buffy only ever went here during the daylight to make sure that neither Angelus nor any of his minions could follow her and find what he sought most.

She was still hurting from her furious battle against Angelus last night. There were questions she needed answered. Angelus was stronger than he should be, much stronger. Buffy had sparred against Angela a hundred times and, even taking into account her smaller size and the fact that she would hold back in a mock fight, she had been nowhere near that strong.

Giles was still furiously researching, she knew. Unfortunately they had found very little information on either Toth's spell or the Gypsy curse, much less how those two might interact. The only thing that was very clear was that Angelus retained no trace of Angela's kindness and compassion. He was a monster through and through.

A monster Buffy wasn't sure she could defeat.

Finally gathering enough courage to knock, she waited for a long moment for Angela to answer the door. When the former vampire didn't appear she took out her spare key and slipped inside, fearing the worst.

"Angela?" She called out.

The new apartment differed from the old in quite a few ways. Lots of windows for one thing. A kitchen that actually saw some use. They had rescued most of Angela's artwork and clothing from the old apartment during the daylight hours. There was little new in the way of decorations, though. So far Angela hadn't made much use of the fact that she could now go shopping during normal business hours.

The living room was empty, so Buffy went on into the bedroom. Maybe Angela was still sleeping. She was still getting used to needing so much sleep, plus she constantly overestimated her own strength. It tended to tire her out quite quickly.

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Angela curled into her sheets. The relief didn't last long, though, as she saw the state her friend was in.

"Angela!" She quickly went over to the bed, trying to shake her awake. Angela was almost as pale as she had been as a vampire. There were dark rings under her eyes and her skin was clammy, covered with cold sweat. She looked almost gaunt.

It took Buffy almost a minute until Angela slowly opened her eyes. Eyes that were completely bloodshot. She looked like someone who had gone through one hell of an ordeal. Was she sick? It would figure that Angela was two centuries and change behind on immunities and stuff. Had she caught some kind of virus?

"Buffy?" Angela whispered, her eyes finally focusing.

"It's me. What's the matter with you? Are you ill?"

Angela shook her head, slowly rising into a sitting position.

"Nothing to worry about. Just a little under the weather. Still getting used to this whole being human thing."

Buffy didn't believe a word. By now she knew Angela good enough to know when she was trying to hide something. The human variant of her friend was nowhere near as good at faking nonchalance as her vampire self had been.

"We should get you to a doctor."

"And tell him what? The fake papers I have won't stand up closer scrutiny. And what am I going to tell him when he asks me about past sicknesses? Sorry, doctor, I was dead the last 250 years?"

It wasn't usual for Angela to be this flippant, either.

"Something is wrong with you," Buffy insisted, "and I don't just mean the fact that you were split into two people. You look like hell."

"Thanks a lot."

"I am worried about you."

They looked into each other's eyes, no more words coming forth. Angela saw the deep worry in Buffy's eyes, which only strengthened her resolve not to tell her anything about the bond she still shared with Angelus. Buffy was right, of course. Something was wrong. It wasn't just the aftereffects of the fight she had gotten echoes of last night. She had noticed it these past few days.

She was weakening. It got harder and harder to get up in the morning. Her strength, already much less than she was used to, was fading more and more. She had trouble holding down food and was rapidly losing what little color her skin had acquired these last few weeks.

Whatever might be happening to her, though, it was far less important than stopping Angelus. Studying the papers, she knew that her other self had already piled up a body count here in Sunnydale. Though his methods were quite different from the ones she remembered using herself, she could tell where he had been at work.

It helped (though that was definitely the wrong verb to use in this instance) that she could feel it when he killed. She tasted the blood on her tongue, felt the rush of draining a life.

Angelus had to be stopped, no matter the cost.

"Is there a particular reason you came by, Buffy?" She asked the Slayer.

Buffy gave her a scowl.

"Don't think I don't notice the change of topic. Still, yes, I came by for a particular reason. I need your help figuring out why Angelus is getting so strong. I fought him last night and barely got away with my life. He was stronger even than when I stopped him from killing Jenny."

That was news. Buffy had told her that Angelus had been quite strong when she fought him over Jenny, but Angela had written it off to Buffy's worry over her friend and Angelus' familiarity with her fighting style.

But what if it was something else? Was Angelus really getting stronger? Maybe it was in some way connected to her growing weaker? Was he somehow drawing away her lifeforce or something? No, that couldn't be it. Even at full strength Angelus should not be so much stronger than a normal vampire that Buffy would worry about it. Something was going on here that she didn't quite understand yet.

"Angelus... I was a skilled fighter in my days and being of the Master's bloodline made me stronger than your average vampire. Are you sure it's more than just that?"

"Very sure." Buffy pointed at her swollen jaw. Why hadn't she noticed that before? Was she so busy with her own misery that she didn't even notice when the girl she loved was injured? God, Buffy had said that she had barely gotten away with her life last night.

"Did he hurt you?" Angela asked, full of concern.

"Not my finest hour." Buffy admitted. "Xander and the others drove him away with crosses, otherwise... he is a lot stronger than he should be. Don't you have any idea what turned him into Super-Vampire?"

"No!" Angela said honestly. "Doesn't Giles have a theory?"

"A few dozen, but none that make any sense. He thinks it might be connected with the spell in some way. Too bad that we don't know anything about that, either."

"Don't come near him until we figure it out!" Angela urged Buffy. "I... I know what he wants to do to you. If you can't beat him, stay far away from him!"

"You know I can't do that." Buffy reminded her. "I have to stop him."

Angela did know that. She wanted Buffy to stop him, even if the price was her own life. Not Buffy's life, though. It wasn't worth that.

"Just promise me to be careful!" Angela took Buffy's hand.

Buffy looked at their joint hands, still weirded out by the feelings it invoked in her. Since Angela had revealed her true feelings (and the fact that she was really a man) to her the former vampire had become much more open with her shows of affection. Not comfortable, though, certainly not that. Buffy could guess that Angela, being in reality an 18th century male, was even more weirded out by the idea of a woman loving another woman than she was.

Add to that the fact that one woman wasn't really a woman... no, Buffy refused to go there again. This whole thing was already a lot more confusing than she could deal with. She didn't need to tie her brain into more knots.

"I promise." Buffy awkwardly patted Angela's hand. "But only if you promise to get yourself checked out. I bet Giles can find a doctor that won't mind the paperwork so much. Please, Angela! I don't want to see you hurt."

She didn't know whether she loved the other woman (or not-woman), but she was certain that she didn't want her hurt. Or killed.

Sighing deeply, Angela nodded.

"Okay. Let Giles look into it. I promise I'll go."

Buffy smiles, satisfied. "Good. We'll be meeting after school, around four pm. More research. You'll be there?"

"I will."

Buffy turned, heading for the exit. Two steps later she stopped, looking over her shoulder.

"Angela?"

"Yes?"

"I... I'm sorry that I can't figure out my own feelings about this. After you came out and told me how you feel about me..."

"Buffy..." Angela began, wanting to tell her not to worry about it.

"No, please let me finish! I... I care for you, Angela. Deeply. It's just... I never had these kinds of feelings for anyone else before. I don't know what to do about them. Especially as I don't know which of you I am supposed to feel something for. The Angela I knew, the man you really are... I just can't wrap my mind around all that."

"I understand." Angela said softly. "How could you when I can't make sense of it myself?"

"I just want you to know that, once we get this Angelus thing over with and done, I'll figure it out. WE will figure it out!"

Angela looked at her, remembering her suspicions about what would happen to her should Buffy kill Angelus.

"We will." She just said, giving the Slayer a fake smile.

--------------------------------------------

Part 4

#

Angelus stared into the mirror in front of him, his eyes tracing the contours of the room reflected there. Vampires had no reflection, everyone knew that. A vampire could stand right in front of a mirror, could touch the smooth surface with his fingers, and still it would show him nothing. Only the same emptiness he carried around inside him where his soul once was.

Angelus stared into the mirror and saw the emptiness marred by the phantom image of a dark-haired female.

"This won't do!" He yelled, shattering the mirror with his fist.

"What troubles you, my Angel?" Drusilla crooned, coming up behind him.

He turned around to look at her, his demon eyes blazing with rage and frustration. Three months! Three months since he had been freed of his humanity, freed of the burden of a human soul, freed from the female flesh that had held him prisoner for a century.

Yet he wasn't free. He would never be free until that human woman who was everything that should have died 250 years ago was dead herself. Only he couldn't get his hands on her.

"I am getting tired of this game, Dru." He told his childe. "Something needs to be down about this state of affairs and soon."

"Something will happen." Drusilla sang, swaying back and forth. "Something that will put an end to everything. Something terrible and beautiful."

Angelus almost smiled as he saw her caught in the throes of a vision once more. He used to love it when that happened, especially since it would normally provide him with some new means to rain down fear and terror on the humans.

Things had changed, though. More and more he found himself disgusted with his childe's insane behavior, found himself repulsed by the human fancies she still carried around. Her dolls, her tea parties, the pretty dresses. She wasn't human! She shouldn't be acting like she was.

"What is it, Dru?" He asked, impatient. "What do you see?"

"Something has arrived at the museum." She sang. "A big rock with a surprise inside."

"What is inside, baby?" He caressed her cheek. When had his nails grown so much? "What kind of surprise is waiting inside?"

"One that will drown the world in fire." Dru mumbled, sinking to her knees with a smile of pure rapture on her face. "I can hear it roar."

"Does it have a name?" He went on his knees beside her, intending his voice to sound soothing and loving. It came out more like a growl. "Tell it to daddy!"

#

Spike cowered on the floor in the next room, needing all his strength just to prop himself up against the wall. The first few weeks after his return Angelus had kept him chained to the wall all the time. Now it wasn't really necessary any longer. Three months of torture with barely a drop of blood to sustain him made sure that he wasn't going anywhere.

Spike had believed that he had hated Angelus before. But compared to what he felt now his earlier animosity paled like a glowworm beside the sun. He would see the bastard dead if it was the last thing he ever did.

He heard Angelus and Dru talking, heard Dru sing about something terrible that was coming. Something that would drown the world in fire? Wasn't that just the thing for this new, improved Angelus. He had always been a sick bastard, but he had never been insane before. This wasn't the Angelus Spike knew. Spike had always walked a fine line between love and hatred with that one. No, this new Angelus was completely bonkers. And perfectly capable of destroying the whole world.

It would accomplish his goal. Destroying that human half of his that was still walking around out there. Destroying the Slayer that had filled him with human feelings. Angelus had talked in length about all these things while he had spent time with Spike in his little torture chamber. The bastard really liked the sound of his own voice and there was nothing more important to talk about than his own obsessions, of course.

Angela and Buffy had to die. And if the rest of the world went to hell along with them, fine and dandy.

Spike leaned against the wall, forcing himself to remain calm. Angelus hadn't visited him in several days now, long enough for Spike to gather some strength again. Not much. The mansion was infested with rats and their blood had barely been enough to heal his wounds. He wouldn't be able to harm a fly right now, much less the big poof.

No, he had to bide his time. Though it really irked him it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to kill Angelus all by his lonesome. The bastard wouldn't let him get strong enough for that, no matter how far gone he might be. Spike would have loved to tear him to pieces with his own hands, but if that wasn't possible...

He just needed his strength. Needed to gather enough strength to get out of this locked room and reach a phone. Call a certain someone who would love to dust the poof for him.

Until then he had to listen carefully.

#

"Akathler." Angelus hissed, a feeling of joyful anticipation spreading inside of him. Akathler, the demon created to swallow the world. If he awoke it would be the end for everyone. Especially pesky Slayers and a certain dark-haired human being that had no business being alive at all.

"Will we go visit him?" Dru asked. "He feels lonely, entombed in stone, not able to take a breath in so many years."

Angelus smiled, his fangs scraping across his bottom lip until they drew blood.

"The museum, you say." He mused. "I think we should do something about our cultural education."

He closed his eyes, imagining how it would be. The human race would die screaming, the world would burn to ash. Sweet, innocent Buffy would fight until her last breath, but it would avail her nothing. He would watch as she was sucked into hell and laugh all the way.

And Angela! Sweet human Angela, combining all the good and fluffy things he had been forced to carry around for so long. No matter where she hid, no matter how hard they tried to protect her from him, she, too, would find her end. And then he would be free. Finally, completely free. Standing atop the ashes of this human world.

"Let's go!" He told the attending minions.

Pulling on his duster he paused for a moment, realizing that he still had his demon face on. For the moment, however fleeting, they still needed to blend when they went outside. He concentrated, calling on the mask that would fool the stupid humans into thinking him one of them. Would allow him to walk among them unnoticed until it was too late for them.

He frowned. His features refused to shift. Concentrating harder he finally felt the bones rearrange themselves, felt the demon slide beneath the skin as the human mask settled into place.

When had that gotten to be so difficult?

#

Classes were over for today, though Buffy found that she didn't remember much of anything she had heard today. It was still an hour until they were scheduled to meet in the library for their latest research party and Willow insisted on doing something that Buffy, though she knew it was necessary, really didn't want to do.

Studying.

Willow was telling her something about chemistry, but Buffy found it impossible to listen. Her thoughts kept spinning, taking her back to Angela's pale face, Angelus' cruel grin, the two faces overlapping until they were indistinguishable from each other.

Angela. Angelus. Back and forth the faces went inside her head until she found herself dizzy. Willow's voice didn't help. The redhead always went rather monotone when she was in study-mode and it was beginning to put Buffy to sleep.

"Are you listening to a word I say?" Willow asked her out of the blue.

"What?" Buffy started, realizing that her forehead had come very close to the table in front of her. They were sitting at Ms. Calendar's desk in the computer science lab, as Willow was filling in until Jenny was released from the hospital. If she was ever released, that was. They still didn't know if she would ever wake from her coma.

"You are miles away." Willow chided softly.

"Sorry. It's just... how am I supposed to concentrate on the composition of natural sugars or whatever with everything that has been happening?"

"I know, Buffy, but it won't help anyone if you drive yourself crazy over it. Plus you have the finals to consider. If you fail them it's a victory for Angelus. I guess. You think he would be happy if you fail your finals?"

Despite herself Buffy smiled.

"I don't know. I'll ask him when I see him the next time."

"We'll figure out a way to beat him. We always do."

Buffy nodded. They always did, didn't they? They had beaten the Master, Spike, all the other assorted demon rabble. Of course 'they' had always included Angela. The female vampire that was helping them for reasons Buffy couldn't quite figure out.

Now she knew. Angela was human. Her evil half was piling up bodies. And Buffy didn't know if things would ever be the same again.

"Let's give it another try." Buffy resolved, pushing the thoughts away. "We have one more hour to kill until the meeting. Maybe something will stick."

"Okay," Willow nodded, "if you combine these molecules in this way..."

Buffy was playing with her pencil when it slipped from her fingers and rolled into the gap between the two desks.

"Hold that thought!" She told Willow, bending down, fingers searching for the lost pencil. Instead they found something else.

"Look at that!" Buffy said, producing a computer disk from between the desks. "You must have dropped that one."

Willow took it, looking at the disk.

"That's not one of mine. Must belong to Ms. Calendar."

Buffy suddenly realized that Jenny had probably been sitting at this very desk, working late, when Angelus had come after her. It sent a shiver down her spine, despite the comforting daylight that fell in through the windows.

Willow inserted the disk into the PC and looked at the contents.

"It's some kind of notes. Parts of it are in a language I can't make much sense of, but..."

Willow fell silent as an image appeared on the screen. It was a picture of the magic wand Drusilla had used on Angela just hours before she had been split into two people.

"The Wand of Toth," Buffy read, wide-eyed, "its magic splits a person in two, giving one half all the positive attributes, the other all the negative ones."

"It's the spell!" Willow whispered, not believing what she saw. "This is what happened to Angela."

"Jenny knew." Buffy realized. "She found out what had happened and that's why Angelus tried to kill her."

"We have to get this to Giles!"

--------------------------------------------

Part 5

#

Angela arrived last, having made her way here from her apartment. The short route had tired her out more than she believed possible and she dropped into the nearest chair, closing her eyes to get her rapid breathing back under control.

"So what's the big news?" Xander asked, looking curiously at the disheveled woman sitting beside him.

Giles had come in from the hospital, though it appeared like he had taken the time to shower and change clothes sometime since Buffy had last seen him. He was still unshaven, though, and looked in desperate need of sleep.

Cordelia was sitting beside Xander on the table, looking serious for a change. What had happened to Ms. Calendar had managed to break even her normally impenetrable façade.

"We found a disk of Ms. Calendar." Willow announced, rearranging the printouts she had made from said disk for the hundredth time. "It appears that she had done quite a bit of research on her own."

"A lot more successful than ours, too." Buffy added, casting worried glances at Angela. She had read what Jenny had written in her files and it had done nothing to soothe her fears. Quite the opposite, actually.

"What did she find out?" Giles asked, looking more alive now than he had since Jenny had been brought into the hospital. "Did she learn anything about the spell that was used?"

"Yes." Willow explained. "The Wand of Toth apparently has the power to split a person in two. Sort of like that old Star Trek episode, you know? The one where Captain Kirk got split in two by the transporter system. One good, one evil."

Angela and Giles looked rather clueless, but Xander nodded, understanding.

"Does that mean we have to put them back together somehow?" He asked. "I mean, in the episode they had to put both Kirks back into the transporter and..."

"We are not talking TV here!" Giles interrupted them rather forcefully. "Did Jenny write anything more about this magic?"

"Yes! Apparently Toth used this wand against his enemies. After the split the two halves would either kill each other, being completely opposed morally, or would be easy pickings for him to kill."

Giles nodded, understanding. "So Drusilla somehow acquired this wand from Toth and it split Angela into her vampire half and her human half. The question remains, though, what now? Can they stay like this forever?"

Willow shook her head, not really knowing how to broach this subject.

"Jenny wrote something about the nature of the split as well. Apparently she found it in some kind of online database about spells and such. I took a look at it, it's quite complete. I bookmarked it for the next time we might need to research..."

"The spell, Willow!" Giles reminded her.

"Oh, sorry. The spell. It appears that the split isn't complete. They're not really two people, just two halves of the same whole. They remain connected, though that bond will fade more and more with time."

Angela closed her eyes. She had suspected as much. The echoes she received from Angelus, be they of pain or pleasure, had gotten a lot weaker over the last months.

"They will never be two separate individuals, though." Willow continued. "They're like... like two halves of a brain. One can not live without the other."

Buffy was looking at Angela with an intensity that almost made the former vampire flinch. She had read all this before. She knew what it meant.

"So if we kill Angelus..." Xander said, figuring it out.

"... Angela will die as well." Willow said. "And there is more. As I said, the bond between them is fading the longer they stay apart. Neither is able to live without the other, though."

"What are you saying, Willow?" Angela asked the redhead, though she suspected that she already knew the horrible answer.

"Unless we find a way to merge you back together," Willow was avoiding Angela's gaze, "you will both die. And soon."

For a long moment there was nothing but shocked silence in the library.

"Willow," Giles began, cleaning his glasses, "are you sure... I mean, are you sure that Jenny reached the correct conclusions in her research? Something like this..."

"It's all correct as far as I can see." Willow said sadly. "Ms. Calendar researched this quite thoroughly. She also explained that, as the bond between the two halves fades, they will both go through changes."

"What kind of changes?" Buffy asked. She hadn't read that far. Everything after the fact that Angela would soon die unless they found a way to reunite her with Angelus had seemed very unimportant to her.

"Essentially the wand split the human from the demon." Willow explained. "For the human it means that, as she is essentially ... well ... you know ... dead." She cringed at saying the word. "It means that, as the demon magic that animates her body fades..."

"I am dying." Angela concluded, seeming strangely untouched by it all. "My body will return to its true state. Dead."

"Yes." Willow continued, wringing the printouts between her hands until the paper started to tear. "And Angelus, he ... well, he will get more ... demony. Without the human half to limit him he will grow stronger and stronger, losing all human traits along the way."

"He is turning into a pure vampire demon." Giles said, taking off his glasses. "But such an entity can not exist in this dimension for any length of time without a human host."

"That's what Jenny theorized, too." Willow nodded. "Angelus will grow ever stronger, but eventually he will fade as he loses his hold on this plain."

"Meaning he will die, too." Angela said calmly. A strange kind of peace seemed to settle over her features.

"Is there anything else in there?" Buffy asked, jumping to her feet, filled with the need to do something. "Did Jenny find a way to reunite Angela and Angelus?"

Willow opened her mouth, but was cut off by Angela.

"That will never happen, Buffy!" She said resolutely. "I won't become one with Angelus again. Under no circumstances."

Buffy looked at her, aghast.

"But... but didn't you listen? If we don't reunite you..."

"He will die. As will I. Something that should have happened 250 years ago."

"Don't talk like that!" Buffy yelled at her. "I won't allow you to..."

"It's not your choice, Buffy!" Angela cut her off again. "It's mine. I will not let that monster back inside me. He will die, nothing else matters. The world will be a much better place without him."

"But not without you!" Buffy shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears. "How can you expect me to just watch you wither away in front of me, knowing that there is a way to safe you?"

"You won't have to." Angela resolved. "I am sorry, Buffy, but this is my life. My choice. I will do what is necessary."

With that she began to turn away.

"What is necessary?" Buffy ran after her, grabbing her by the shoulder. "You mean kill yourself? Commit suicide only to take that bastard with you? Is that what you plan on doing? Stab a knife into your heart? Or maybe throw yourself off a building?"

"Let me go, Buffy!" Angela said without looking at the Slayer. If she looked into her eyes Buffy would see how much this was hurting her, too.

"I won't! I won't just let you go away and kill yourself! We'll find a way to beat Angelus! Maybe we'll find a way to save you without keeping him alive, but I won't just let you do this!"

"Buffy..." Angela began again.

"Shut up!" The Slayer yelled. "I'll knock you out if I have to. You're not a vampire any longer, you can't match strength with me. I'll keep you here by force!"

Shaking her head Angela finally turned to look at her, tears shimmering in her own eyes.

"You think I want to do this?" She asked with a shaky voice. "You think I want to give up this human life after it was returned to me? But I can't become one with him again! I just can't! You don't know what it is like to live with something like that inside of you, hearing it whisper to you night after night. Telling me of all the things it would like to do. To you. To your friends. I can't shut it out, I can't make it stop! There is this terrible darkness inside me and it hurts so much."

Swallowing back the tears she gathered her resolve again.

"Angelus has to die, Buffy! There is no other way."

Buffy refused to be shaken.

"He will die if we do nothing." She reminded Angela. "We don't know how long you have, but probably not a long time. If we don't find a way to ... I don't know, transfer his magic to you without taking the demon or... I don't know how this will work, but I know that he, and you, will die if we leave things as they are. So please give us that time to look for another way! Don't just give up on yourself, Angela! Please!"

Seeing the desperation on Buffy's face caused tears to trail down Angela's cheeks. God, why did this have to happen? Why did she have to fall for this beautiful girl? Why did Buffy have to have such strong feelings for her in return, whatever they might be? Why hadn't the Gypsies just killed her all these years ago?

Everything inside her was screaming to end it here and now. Put an end to her miserable existence and thereby rid the world of Angelus forever. Only she saw that it would rip out Buffy's heart as well. God, for so long had she hoped, though never believed it possible, that Buffy would return her feelings. How often had she prayed for some miracle that would turn her back to her true self, a man, so she could give Buffy all the love she so richly deserved.

Now it seemed that part of her hopes and dreams had come true. Why now? Why just now?

"Buffy, please..." She began, knowing that she was losing this battle.

"Promise me!" The Slayer insisted. "Promise that you will give us the chance to look for some way to save you! You owe me that much, damn it!"

Finally Angela nodded, resigning. "Very well. Whatever time I have left. But I will not allow you to put yourself in deadly danger to save me, Buffy. I'm not worth your life."

Buffy was about to answer that when the doors of the library flew open and admitted a newcomer to the scene. One who stopped in her tracks, seeing the many people gathered in the library.

"Is this a bad time?" Kendra asked.

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Part 2 of 3

Part 6

#

The curator of the Sunnydale Museum was a patient and easygoing man. He never hurried, never let impatience of curiosity get the best of him. So it was that, even though his curiosity burned hot inside him, he didn't lay a finger on the huge stone monolith standing in front of him.

Workers had discovered it during excavations for a new housing project, buried deep underground. Preliminary dating estimated that it had been there for at least a thousand years, probably more. It was old, very old, and there was no telling what secrets it might contain.

The curator had wanted to consult Rupert Giles, one of the most notable experts on archeological curiosities in the known world, but had only been told that Mr. Giles was on an extended leave of absence from work due to some sort of personal tragedy. They were waiting for another expert on this, one who was due to fly in from New York within the next two days.

Unfortunately for everyone said expert would never lay an eye on this monolith. And the curator had about two or three seconds to realize that the stone seemed to be whispering to him when he found himself grabbed by two strong hands, a sharp pain slashing into his neck a moment later.

He knew nothing else.

#

"There was a break-in at the museum." Giles said, putting down the receiver. "The curator is dead and only one thing was stolen. A stone monolith recently unearthed near Sunnydale."

"Akathler." Kendra said, looking worried.

"Run that by me again!" Buffy looked at her sister Slayer, then her Watcher. "You both pale at that name. What is it?"

"Akathler is a demon, Buffy, created many thousand years ago. His sole purpose is to raze the Earth and consign all non-demon life to eternal torment in Hell. With an intake of breath he can create a portal that will grow into a vortex. According to lore it will then sweep across the Earth, burn the land into ash, and suck all living things into the fire."

"To Hell in a handbasket." Buffy muttered. "Or an ugly demon in this case. What can we do?"

"Well," Giles looked at the book in front of him, as well as the notes Kendra had brought from her own Watcher, "it appears that, before Akathler could fulfill his mission, he was impaled by a knight with an enchanted sword. He then turned to stone. To awaken him..."

"Pull out the sword?" Buffy guessed.

"Simply put, yes. There is a ritual involved, otherwise the sword can not be removed. But once it is..."

His voice trailed off.

"We can't afford to wait then." Angela said, almost forgotten as she had listened to everything that was said. "Angelus will not hesitate to unleash this creature. It will wipe out all that ails him in one swoop."

She remembered how much she ... he had distained all things human, though he had not been consistent in that dislike, seeing as he had liked to surround herself with human luxuries. But this new Angelus, wanting nothing more than to rid himself of all things human, would consider this demon the best gift ever sent to him.

They had to stop him. Now.

"Don't even think what I think you're thinking!" Buffy warned her.

"Buffy..."

"No, Buffy is correct in this case." Giles said. "Even if we do ... kill Angelus by ... you know, it will leave the demon in the hands of Drusilla. I have little doubt what she would do with him."

He was right, Angela realized. Drusilla would certainly love to unleash Akathler upon the world, even more so if said world had taken her 'daddy' away from her. Spike now, he wasn't the kind to destroy the world. He loved it too much. After three months of Angelus back in charge, though, she doubted that Spike still held a lot of influence in the household.

"We have to find them." Kendra said. "My Watcher gave me another sword, blessed the same way as the one that still impales the creature. Should worst come to worst it should be able to ban him again. I think."

She took the blade from her sports bag, the metal gleaming in the overhead lights.

"Let us hope it won't come to that." Giles muttered, rubbing his tired eyes. "Angela, I realize how much this is asking of you, but ..."

"The best way to stop Angelus from unleashing Akathler is to reunite us." She finished the sentence, looking down. "I figured that out."

The look of joy on Buffy's face was cut short by the pure misery she saw on Angela's features.

"Can we?" Buffy asked Willow, who was still studying Ms. Calendar's notes over by the table. "Can we just say some magic words and have them back together?"

Willow shook her head.

"There are some notes here at the end, dated the night she was attacked. It's a spell she thinks could do the trick, but apparently both Angela and Angelus would have to be in touching distance for this."

"That still leaves us with the problem of how to find him."

#

Spike had heard enough. This demon would suck the world into Hell, people and all. Would leave nothing but a burnt-out wasteland here on Earth while everyone hightailed it to demon country, where a vampire like him would be pretty much near the bottom of the food chain.

If Angelus let him live that long, that was.

He had to do something and fast. Dru certainly wouldn't help him. She would go along with whatever insanity Angelus cooked up, even if it were to mean her own death. He had screwed her up so much she would never go against him.

He needed help from some other corner. Someone who hated Angelus every bit as much as he did. Someone who would see him dead.

Angelus seemed to have forgotten all about him ever since this whole big demon thing had come up, allowing Spike to build up his strength. Not nearly enough to fight, but enough to break out of the room where Angelus had left him and reach a phone.

#

"Sunnydale High School Library, Mr. Giles speaking." Giles answered the phone.

Buffy looked up sharply as he gasped, holding the receiver away as if he was handling a poisonous snake.

"What is it, Giles?" She asked, worried.

Giles looked at Angela. "It's for you. Apparently... the caller says he is Spike."

Angela frowned, but moved forward to take the phone from Giles.

"Spike?" She asked.

"Hello, poof." His unmistakable voice sounded in her ear. "How is life as a human going these days?"

"Much better than yours, I'd wager." She replied, forcing herself to remain calm and collected. "I am certain Angelus was not gentle with you upon his return to the family."

There was a short silence at the other end that confirmed her suspicions.

"Let us say, we have different opinions on how things should be run." Spike said eventually. "Especially concerning a certain world-swallowing demon. Does that sound familiar?"

"It certainly does."

"Well then. You might want to send your spunky Slayer friend to the old mansion in Crawford Street then. Your better half is preparing to unleash all sorts of juicy Hell as we speak, darling."

Angela was almost tempted to just slam down the phone and forget about it. After everything Spike had done to her, helping him in any way was the last thing she wanted. There was the fate of the world to consider, though. Not something to just forget about.

"I will tell her, Spike." Angela said after a moment. "You might want to do what you can on your end to make sure she doesn't face too much opposition."

#

Spike put down the phone, feeling a lot better. The Slayer would take care of the poof and the big stone dude. He just had to make sure that Drusilla got away clean and then things would be like they had been before. Just the two of them.

Oh yes, things would be good.

"Naughty Spike." Drusilla's voice sounded out behind him. "Look at the mess you've made."

Or maybe not.

-----------------------------------------

Part 7

#

"Okay, here is the plan!" Buffy said after learning what Spike had told Angela. "I will go to this address Spike gave us."

"You mean we will." Kendra interrupted her.

"No, I need you here. This could be a trap after all. You stay here and protect Angela, Willow, and Giles while they try to figure out this spell. Once you have done that you come to join me at this mansion. If I haven't brought Angelus here by then, that is."

"You can't beat him alone, Buffy." Angela reminded her. "Remember, he has grown a lot stronger."

"I don't have to beat him. Only make him come after me until the two of you are close together. Two Slayers should be able to hold him down then. At least until we do the spell."

Angela looked away, clearly not comfortable with the idea of being reunited with the demon. Was it even necessary still? If they knew where Akathler was they could destroy it before either Angelus or Drusilla could unleash the demon. She wouldn't need to let that monster back inside.

No need to tell that to Buffy right now, though.

"What if he's in the middle of unleashing that demon?" Xander asked from the sidelines. "He might not be inclined to run after you if he's busy bringing about the end of the world."

"In that case I might have to do something radical to get his attention. Like burning down that mansion. Don't worry, I'll find a way."

The others nodded, not really happy with the plan, but seeing no better way either. Angela walked towards Buffy, every step now an effort, and placed her hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Please be careful, Buffy." She said, looking her into the eyes. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

The Slayer just nodded, squeezing Angela's hand in return. Soon, she resolved inside herself. Once this was all over with and done she would spend time with Angela and they would figure out what they were to each other. Although Buffy already had a very strong suspicion of what it was she felt for the former and hopefully (though that was a strange word to use in this case) future vampire.

"I'll be back soon." She promised, then turned toward the door.

"Wait!" Kendra stepped in front of her. "If you get into trouble, well ...," she took an intricately carved stake out from under her jacket, "take my lucky stake along. I slayed many vampires with this one. It's called Mr. Pointy."

Buffy looked at her. "You have named your stake?"

Kendra nodded shyly.

"I think I'll have to get you a stuffed toy before you leave." She smiled, taking the stake from Kendra's hand.

With another smile she was gone.

"To work then!" Giles sighed. "We have a spell to figure out."

#

Buffy slowly made her way closer to the mansion ahead of her. It was a scary place, that much she knew. Willow and her had passed it by a few times and the redhead had told her the numerous ghost stories about this supposedly haunted house. About all the monsters that were said to dwell there.

Right now, though, Buffy was interested in but one of the monsters living here.

"I thought you'd never come." A voice sounded out behind her. "The end of the world wouldn't be the same without you here."

Buffy froze the moment she heard him speak, turning around as if in slow motion. There he stood, only a few meters away from her, grinning from ear to ear. His fangs flashed in the moonlight.

"Won't happen, Angelus!" She told him, drawing Mr. Pointy from within her coat.

"Oh, Buff." He sighed. "Aren't we past that stage already? I mean, haven't you realized by now how futile this all is? You can't defeat me. Maybe you could have beaten the old me. You know, that disgusting female vampire with a soul? The one that lusted after you every chance she got? You might have taken her down. Boy, she would have enjoyed that even."

He walked closer, supremely confident.

"But I'm not your sweet Angela, Buff. I'm the real deal. And, well, I think before I send this entire sorry world to hell, I'll take the time to you kill you."

"You're welcome to try!"

Angelus attacked!

#

"I think we've got it!" Giles said, taking the latest computer printout Willow had produced. "With some minor modifications to Jenny's spell we should be able to merge you back together."

Angela took the printout from his hands, looking at the words written there. The words that would doom her.

"Is distance still a factor?" She asked him.

"Uh, yes. While this spell won't actually require you two to touch each other, you still have to be close. The same room at the least. You will have to say the spell out loud."

She nodded, closing her eyes. This was it, then. Her one-way ticket back to damnation. She just hoped she wouldn't have to use it. If they could reach Akathler without reuniting her with Angelus ... she folded the piece of paper together and put it into her pocket. With any luck she would never have to take it out again.

"Then let's go catch up with Buffy." Willow said, gathering her things together. "By now she'll be facing Angelus all by her lonesome."

"Let's go then." Giles said, nodding to Kendra. The second Slayer was ready for action and anxious to do something.

At that same moment the doors flew open and a dozen vampires entered the library, led by Drusilla. The mad vampiress had a broad smile on her face.

"Look!" She giggled, excited. "Such pretty humans, all in a row."

#

Angelus shoved Buffy away, but made no move to follow up. She rolled back to her feet again, glaring at him.

"Is it me or aren't you really trying?" Angelus sighed. "Half the time I think you're about to run away."

Buffy was breathing hard. He had gotten stronger still, her hardest blows barely affected him. Would a stake through the heart still do the trick even? Not that she had any plans of killing him. Not as long as there was still a chance to save Angela.

"No running away tonight." She told him.

"Oh, really? And here I thought you would try something tricky. Like, oh, I don't know, try and lure me away from Akathler. Maybe get me to follow you back to your friends, who are, no doubt, preparing some kind of trap for me back at the library."

Buffy barely succeeded at keeping her poker face. Did he know something? Had Spike betrayed them? He seemed to have known she was coming, had been out here waiting for her.

"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked.

"I'm talking about your friends, Buff. The ones you left back at the library. All alone. Defenseless."

She heard the tone of his voice, saw his widening grin, and she knew. Without a second thought she turned her back on him and started sprinting back toward the school.

"You really should know better than to trust someone like Spike, Buff." She heard his voice, taunting after her. "I thought I taught you better than that."

#

The distance towards the school seemed to grow with every step she took, the seconds dragging by with agonizing slowness. Hours seemed to have passed by the time she finally reached the school, barreling past the entrance doors without slowing down. Silence hung over the school. Complete silence.

She burst through the library doors and skidded to a stop, the world around her one giant freeze frame.

Kendra! Motionless on the floor before her, lying in a puddle of blood. The table overturned, books scattered everywhere. Xander! Up between the collapsed stacks, not moving either. Nothing was moving, everything was still.

Still as death.

Without quite knowing how she got there Buffy found herself besides Kendra, looking down at her sister Slayer. Her throat was slashed, her open eyes staring at the ceiling with that look of supreme disinterest only the departed managed. Buffy felt her breathing accelerate, cold sweat breaking out on her brow, unable to tear her eyes away from those eyes.

This was her fault. She had failed them all. All of them. Where were the others? Willow? Giles? Angela?

"Freeze!" Someone yelled at her, causing her to look up and directly into the barrel of a gun.

-----------------------------------------

Part 8

#

Buffy looked up and straight into the barrel of a gun, not comprehending what she saw for many a moment.

A cop? In Sunnydale? She wasn't sure she had ever seen a cop before in this city. Certainly not at a crime scene. Sunnydale's Finest had developed the very healthy habit of staying away from all the things that went screaming in the night. What was a cop doing here?

"Get up!" The cop yelled at her. "Hands over the head!"

Slowly Buffy rose, the entire scene completely surreal. Maybe she was dreaming. None of this was really happening, it had to be a dream. A dream where Kendra was dead. Maybe Xander. All the others. Where were the others?

A second cop came in, kneeling down beside Kendra.

"This one's dead." She pronounced.

"What about the boy?" The first cop nodded toward Xander.

This had to be a nightmare. It just had to be. Because of this was really happening, then... it had to be a nightmare. There wasn't any alternative.

"Call the paramedics!" The second cop said. "And take the girl out!"

Buffy found herself dragged out of the library, too dazed to resist. She could clearly feel the cop's rough grip on her forearm. Did that mean this was real? Had Angelus' vampires really come here while she was busy fighting a futile fight against him? Sure, it made sense, a detached part of her mind said. Spike had betrayed them. Had she really expected anything else? And it also made sense that they had arranged for the cops to be here just in time to... in time to... God, did they think she had done this?

She planted her feet down, refusing to be dragged any further.

"Please let me check on my friends!" She told the cop, pleading with her eyes.

"You're coming with me to the station." He just said, attempting to drag her further. At that moment another man came around the corner. Principal Snyder.

"Summers." He sighed.

"You know this girl?" The cop inquired.

"Buffy Summers. If there's trouble then she's to blame." He stated.

Buffy's temper exploded as the reality of the situation hit her. Kendra was dead. Maybe the others as well. And Angelus was still out there, ready to launch the end of the world.

"You little idiot!" She spat at Snyder. "You have no idea what's going on here."

"Violent tendencies." Snyder just said with a satisfied smile. "She's a troublemaker."

"Please!" Buffy turned toward the cop again. "I just want to know whether my friends are..."

"That's enough!" He spun her around, taking out a pair of cuffs. "You have the right to..."

She couldn't allow herself to be arrested, Buffy realized. Not now! Angelus had to be stopped, no matter what. Without another thought she elbowed the cop right in the face, bringing him down with a follow-up kick to the belly. He collapsed to the floor and Buffy started running past a very surprised Snyder.

She dimly heard the other cop behind her, screaming for her to stop or else.

#

The first thing Angela became aware of was the cold that had spread through her body. It had started a few days ago, a chill that worked its way through her flesh. A chill she knew all too well. Liam had felt it all these years ago when a beautiful vampire's fangs had sunk into his throat and torn the warmth from his body.

The chill of the grave. She was dying. Quickly.

She was also hurting quite a bit. She dimly remembered vampires storming into the library, too many of them for Kendra to fight. Xander had tried to defend her and Willow, as had Giles, but they had both gone down as creatures much stronger than they had overwhelmed them. She was quite sure that Cordelia had managed to flee.

There was a brief image of Drusilla fighting Kendra before the world had gone black.

"Someone's coming awake." She heard a familiar voice whisper close by.

Angela became aware that she was standing. Or hanging, rather, suspended by her wrists, the cold of a concrete wall against her back. Cold metal bit into her wrists and she felt the barest trickle of warm blood down her arms from where her wrists had been chaffed open. Blood that wasn't nearly as warm as it should be.

For a living human being, that was.

Angela finally opened her eyes and looked directly into her own face. The face she remembered having. A long time ago.

"Welcome home, my dear." Angelus said. "What do you think? Wouldn't old Freud have a field-day with this kind of situation? Here we are, the one of us. Isn't it great?"

She blinked, trying to get her rapid heartbeat back under control. He was here. The demon she had thought forever gone from her mind. So close, she could feel his dead breath on her face. He stank of blood and death. His face was twisted by the demon features. She had never seen herself like this, of course, but something was wrong with that. There seemed barely any humanity left in that face.

Which was very true, she realized, remembering what Willow had told them but a few hours ago. Or maybe longer. No telling how long she had been unconscious.

"Nothing to say?" Angelus asked, a mocking sadness on his face. "I was so looking forward to having my inner monologues out loud with you. Well, not really. Actually I was looking forward to killing you."

Angela swallowed hard, the cold inside her only intensifying with the fear she felt. She didn't trust her voice, so she didn't say anything. Instead she looked around.

They were in a large room, looking like the insides of an old mansion. The mansion in Crawford street? Had Spike told her the truth about that at least? She realized that her childe (no, HIS childe!) must have betrayed her.

A huge stone statue stood in the center of the room. Angelus followed her gaze and smiled.

"Oh yes. Akathler! Nice fellow. Even harder to wake up than you, though. It's been bugging me, you know? I already tried to unleash him, but the ritual didn't work. Must have done something wrong."

"Tough luck!" Angela whispered, surprised at herself.

"Yes, isn't it?" Angelus smiled, content that there seemed to be some fire left in his human half. "But we're not the type to despair, are we? Or rather I'm not. You despaired for a century when you were in control, didn't you? Thankfully I'm over that. I'm over you. And I got professional help for my little demon problem."

He gestured at something to her right and Angela spotted Giles, tied to a chair not ten feet away from her.

"Giles!" She yelled, impotently pulling at her chains with what little strength she had left.

The Watcher was awake, but just barely. His skin was covered with bruises and cuts, his glasses broken. Blood was trickling down his face from a big gash on his forehead.

"Don't worry about him!" Angelus smiled. "He will live longer than you. After all, it's only fair that he should live to see what he will help me achieve. Akathler's awakening. He will see as he swallows the world."

"N-never!" The Watcher stammered. "I'll ... never ..."

"Stubborn fellow, isn't he?" Angelus' smile never wavered. "I already tortured him a bit. Nothing spectacular. Nothing grotesque, either. I'm sure you remember everything that we liked to do in the good old days. Too bad they didn't have chainsaws back then, right?"

Angela was almost frozen with fear, but one thing remained crystal-clear in her mind. Angelus clearly planned to kill her. He would probably want to make it slow and have his fun doing it, but he would kill her.

And once he did, he would die as well.

"Get it over with, Angelus!" She said in as steady a voice as she could manage. "Rid yourself of your humanity! Isn't that what we always wanted to do?"

The demon moved closer until their forehead's touched.

"I see we still understand each other. That's good. I'd hate to think I can't get along with myself. Come to think of it, I can't get along with you. So I think I'll just kill you."

Moving away a bit, he took a sharp knife from a nearby table. The blade glinted in the light of the flames roaring in the old fireplace. Angela bit back a whimper. No matter what he did to her, he would feel it as well. And he would die, too. Everything else didn't matter.

"Feel free to scream!" He said, leaning closer.

We will both scream before this is over, Angela thought with the barest hint of a smile on her lips as he moved the knife closer. She would drag him down into hell with her.

-----------------------------------------

Part 9

#

Sneaking into the hospital wasn't easy, there were a lot of cops around, but with a little Slayer stealth and some assist by Xander she managed to make it to Willow's room. The redhead was lying in the bed, pale as the sheets, hooked up to some kind of machinery.

Buffy balled her fists, tears leaking from her eyes. That was the second of her friends the bastard had put into the hospital. He would pay for that. Somehow she would make him pay.

"The doctors say she could wake up every moment," Xander said, a cast on his arm where a vampire had broken it, "but the longer she stays asleep..."

His voice trailed off. Buffy shook her head, dispelling the need to just collapse on the floor and weep. There was no time for that now. Not now. She needed to be strong until this was over. One way or the other.

"Where are the others?" She asked Xander, wiping the tears away with her sleeve. "Angela, Giles, Cordelia. Where are they?"

"Cordy managed to escape through the stacks." Xander looked down. "I ... I don't know about the others. When I was knocked out Giles was still fighting. I didn't see much of Angela."

Calm! Buffy told herself. Remain calm! Angelus wanted Angela dead, she knew that, but her body hadn't been at the library. That meant that she had either gotten away or been captured. There was a chance she was still alive.

'And as long as she lives, so will Angelus!' Her inner voice said.

"The spell!" She remembered. "What about the spell? Did Giles and Willow find anything before..."

"They did." Xander nodded. "Willow said ... I think she said that Angela will have to read the spell out loud while being in the same room with Angelus. She ... she wrote it down on a piece of paper."

"What happened to it?"

"I don't know, Buffy. That was right when the vampires attacked us and we all got very busy just staying alive."

Buffy sighed, trying to think of something to do now. If Spike hadn't been a complete liar then she knew where Angelus was holed up, but what did that avail her? She couldn't beat him one on one, she knew that by now. Kendra was dead and ...

Oh God! Kendra was dead!

Pulling herself away from the edge of despair she returned to her list of options, shutting out all other emotions. She had no backup. Xander was hurt. Giles and Angela were gone. Willow was ... asleep. Would wake up soon! Just asleep! Anyway, that left exactly no one.

'You just need to kill Angela and Angelus will die as well!'

"Stop that!" She yelled out loud, startling Xander.

"What...?"

"Nothing, sorry. What can I do, Xander? Everything has gone wrong."

He sat down on the edge of Willow's bed, looking very tired.

"I hate to say this, Buffy, but to me it looks like the only thing we can do is hope that Angelus ... that he will try and ... kill Angela before he unleashes that demon dude. If he does ..."

"I won't accept that!" She interrupted him.

"The spell is gone, Buffy!" Xander reminded her. "The vamps wrecked the computer Willow had Ms. Calendar's notes on. Willow is ... and God alone knows whether Angela is even capable of saying anything out loud anymore, much less pronounce a complicated spell."

"Shut up!" She shook her head. "Shut the hell up!"

Xander did, too tired and distraught to turn this into a fight. Buffy paced the length of the room, trying to think of something to do. She couldn't just wait for either the world to end or finding out that Angelus had ... she had to do something.

"I'm going back to the library." Buffy resolved. "Kendra ... she had that second magic sword. Maybe that will help me some."

"I told the cops what happened when I woke up." Xander said. "I think they're still looking for you, though. Assault on a police officer or something."

"I didn't have time to fool around." She just said. "Watch Willow for me, okay?"

"Looks like there's nothing else I can do." He nodded.

#

The sharp blade caught the light from the roaring fire as it descended on her flesh and Angela bit her teeth together. There was a risk in this. Angelus intended to kill her slowly. If the bond between them was still strong enough for him to feel the wounds as he inflicted them on her, if he figured out that...

The blade sliced along her chest and drew blood. Angela hissed in pain, just managing to keep from screaming. God! She had forgotten how much being human hurt. The phantom pains she had received from Angelus across the bond hadn't been half as real.

She heard a low growl from Angelus.

"I know this is hurting." He whispered into her ear. "Believe me, I feel your pain!"

Did he? She opened her eyes and searched his naked chest for a wound mirroring the one he had just inflicted on her. There was a faint scar there, she saw. It looked like a wound that had been inflicted months ago, almost healed. Before her eyes the scar vanished completely, the vampire's skin once again smooth and flawless.

It seemed he hadn't noticed a thing. Good!

"You know I won't kill you until you scream." Angelus whispered. "We never did, did we? We always wanted to hear them scream. So why are you making this hard on yourself? Scream for me, Angela!"

He sliced the knife across her stomach, the wound just deep enough to draw blood without doing any serious damage. Angela hissed and bit her bottom lip.

"Then again," Angelus shrugged, "we have barely started."

Again a faint scar appeared on his own flesh, disappearing almost as quickly as it had come. Angela managed half a smile. He didn't feel it. He was too much a demon already, these slight wounds not even noticeable.

She knew his methods. They were her own, after all. He would keep inflicting small but painful wounds until she screamed for him. Then he would inflict some more. But nothing serious, nothing even close to lethal, until she begged him for death. Then he would kill her in one stroke. Drink her blood or simply break her neck.

Which would mean his own doom. He just didn't know it yet.

"Are you planning on boring me to death?" She asked him, smiling. Time to escalate things.

Angelus' eyes sparkled with rage and pleasure.

"No, my dear!" He grazed her cheek with his fangs. "Boredom will not be what you die of, I assure you."

It took another four cuts to make her scream.

#

Rupert Giles was still tied to a chair, trying to ignore his abused body and the pain that surged through him in never-ending waves. He was a Watcher and a Watcher was trained for such happenings as well. Many creatures of the night knew about the Watchers, knew that they held a lot of knowledge about all things arcane. Watchers had been kidnapped before in order to make use of their accumulated knowledge.

Watchers were trained to withstand torture until given the opportunity to escape or take their own life. Unfortunately for Rupert Giles neither of these options was feasible at the moment and he found that he was rapidly reaching his limits. He didn't know whether he would be able to withstand another round of torture at Angelus' hands.

Someone was screaming. A female voice. Angela? Was that monster harming Angela now? If so, the cold and clinical part of him said, he was sealing his own fate.

"Rupert!" A voice whispered, close to his ear. He knew that voice.

"Jenny?" He said, not believing that she could be here. "Jenny, are you...?"

She slipped into his field of vision, whole and healthy as he remembered her. How was this possible? He had seen her just yesterday, still in the hospital. She couldn't be here, could she? This had to be a dream.

"Shhh!" She put her finger on his lips. "We must be careful! The others are here as well. We'll get you out of here."

Giles' eyes lit with hope. Jenny was awake again. The others were here to rescue them. Angelus would be defeated.

"Has he already done anything with Akathler?" Jenny asked as she started working on his bonds.

"No, no! He tried, but ... he doesn't know. We ... we must get him away from Akathler."

"Why? Can Angelus free him?"

"He ... his blood, it's ... if he tries and pulls out the sword with his blood on his hand ..."

"That would unleash Akathler?" She asked him.

"Yes! We ... we must get him away from ..."

"Everything will be all right, Rupert!" She stopped working on his bonds and leant down to kiss him. "Everything will be all right."

Angelus smiled as he heard Giles' words. Turning toward Angela, taking in her beautiful, blood-soaked appearance and the look of pain on her face, he couldn't resist laughing out loud.

"Did you hear that, my dear?" He asked her, roaring with laughter. "It looks like Drusilla has not lost her touch. Soon we will put things to an end."

When Giles looked up he found not Jenny's face, but that of the mad vampire Drusilla. Horror spread on his face as he realized what he had just done.

"I liked the kiss." Dru whispered to him.

-----------------------------------------

Part 10

#

She was two blocks away from the mansion where Angelus and Drusilla were holed up. Two blocks away from a demon that would soon destroy the world unless she found someway to stop him from being awakened. Two blocks away from the man who was closer to her than her own father and the woman ... man ... whatever, for whom she felt more strongly than she could ever explain. She didn't know whether they were both still alive. She just had to go these last two blocks, enter the mansion, and find out.

In a minute.

Buffy was leaning against the wall of a building, her face buried in her hands, pushing against the dark abyss of despair that was threatening to overwhelm her. How could everything have gone wrong so very quickly? How could her entire life just collapse in so short a time?

She had gone back to school to get Kendra's sword and had run into Snyder, who had informed her with a diabolical smile on his face that, even should she be cleared of charges, she was out of his school. Not that she really cared much about that right at that moment. And the look of fear on his face when she walked past him with the sword in hand almost made up for everything that stupid little dwarf had done to her these past two years.

Then she went home. And everything had gone wrong.

Her mother had been visited by the police, who had told her their version of what had happened in the library. Had told her that a girl was dead, two more people injured, and that her daughter was believed to be the culprit.

Looking into her mother's eyes Buffy knew that Joyce believed that it could be true. She actually believed that her daughter could have done something like that.

Buffy hadn't had the time or the patience to explain everything to her, not trusting herself not to say something terrible and hurting. But then a vampire had attacked her right on her front lawn, one of Angelus' people, and she had been forced to stake him in front of her mother's eyes.

There was no time, she kept repeating to herself, I had no time to explain it all to her. Joyce hadn't been satisfied with that, though, had refused to listen to the few short words Buffy had said while gathering more weapons from her room. Some part of Buffy kept telling her that it had been too much for her mother, too much revelations in too short a time. That she hadn't meant the things she had said.

That she hadn't meant it when she said that Buffy should never ever come back.

Swallowing the sob building in her throat Buffy forced herself back to her feet. If she started crying now she would not be able to stop. She would collapse into a sobbing wreck while the world ended just two blocks away. No time for that now. Not while there might still be some people left who depended on her, who needed her.

Who loved her.

Buffy stood on more or less steady legs, grabbed her dead sister's sword, and started walking the two blocks.

"Hey, kid!" A voice behind her suddenly called out. Buffy whirled around to see a short, stocky man in a dingy jacket and a funny hat standing there.

"Who are you?" She snarled, no time for pleasantries.

"Whistler." He simply said.

She looked at him a moment longer, then turned away again. He wasn't human, her Slayer sense told her that much, but she was really not in the mood to deal with any kind of boogaboo right now except for the ones that awaited her in the old mansion.

"Knock yourself out, Whistler!" She told him as she walked away. "My Slayer card is full for the night."

"I first met your pal Angela about three years ago."

The words were in conversational tone, but caused Buffy to freeze on the spot.

"Found her in New York." He continued. "She was living in filth, drowning in her own misery. I told her that the only way she would ever be able to repay her sins was by doing something, not by suffering in silence."

Buffy turned around to look at him.

"When she was recovered from starving herself for decades," Whistler had walked up to her, "I sent her here to Sunnydale. To the newly called Slayer."

"You sent her here?" Buffy whispered.

"We knew you would need help, kiddo. Chosen as the Slayer, but not trained for it from birth. Destined to face more world-class menaces than most Slayers before you. Standing guard over the Mouth of Hell. We figured you could use someone to watch your back. Someone who wanted to redeem herself."

Shock quickly gave way to anger and Buffy grabbed Whistler, throwing him into the nearest wall.

"Did you know this would happen?" She snarled into his face. "Was that why you sent her here? So Angelus would return and destroy the world?"

"We never counted on that happening." He said, making no move to defend himself. "The future is fluid, kid, no one can predict what's to come with a hundred percent success rate. We didn't figure on mad Dru here spinning some mojo that would unleash Angela's old self."

Buffy let him go, but was fully prepared to hit him again any moment now.

"We knew Akathler was destined to resurface around this time," Whistler said, drawing his wrinkled jacket back into place, "but I figured Angela would help destroy him. Maybe earn her redemption that way."

"And now?" Buffy asked, her right hand gripping the sword tighter.

"Now everything's going to hell. Angelus will unleash Akathler to destroy the world. He's becoming a pure demon, completely insane and ruthless. By now he knows how to do it, too. The only question is whether he will do that first or give preference to killing his human half before ending the world. If he does he will die, of course, but then Drusilla will take up the reigns and wake up the demon in his stead."

"How?" Buffy asked forcefully. "If you're so all-knowing, tell me how! How will they awaken Akathler? How can I stop it?"

Whistler sighed. "It's pretty easy, actually. Someone has to draw the sword from the stone, someone whose hand has his or her own blood on it. That's all there is to it, really. And once it's done, once Akathler is awake and starts creating that vortex of his..."

He glanced down at the sword Buffy held. "Should that happen, the only way to stop it is to take the sword that impaled Akathler, or its twin you have here, and use it on the one who awakened him in the first place."

"Use it to kill Angelus, you mean." Buffy asked, the coldness of her voice chilling her down to her soul.

"If he's the one opening it, yes."

Buffy closed her eyes. Killing Angelus! God, how she wanted to do that. But she couldn't. It would kill Angela, too.

"I know what you're thinking, kid." Whistler said. "But there is no way around it. Angela and Angelus are one. What happens to one will happen to the other. Right now Angelus has come very close to killing Angela and ..."

Her eyes snapped open, looking at them. "And you couldn't tell me that sooner?"

She started running toward the mansion at full speed.

"You can't beat him one on one, kid!" Whistler yelled after her. "He's grown too strong to be defeated. You have to ..."

She drowned out his words, fully knowing what he would say. The only option left, the only one she could see.

The only way to defeat Angelus.

"Never!" She swore to herself. "I'll find another way!"

Only she had no idea what that other way might be.

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. Part 3 of 3

Part 11

#

Angelus looked upon his work and found it good. For how long had he missed doing this? A century now, a hundred years without doing what he loved doing best. Captured inside the body of a woman, chained by a soul that made him deny and despise all that he was, all that he cherished.

It was very, very fitting that the same female body that had held him prisoner for so long should now be here, subject to the same tender ministrations he had been forced to abstain from for so long.

Angela, his human half, hung limply in the chains holding her up, her wrists chaffed raw from the metal. He had ripped off most of her clothing, only a few tattered remains hung on her, concealing nothing. Allowing the observer to see the artwork he had performed on her skin.

Oh, how she screamed. Such beautiful screams.

"What was that, my dear?" He asked, pulling her head up by the blood-encrusted hair. "Repeat that for me, will you?"

She coughed, spitting up blood. He hadn't quite been able to restrain himself, inflicting several blows on her as well as the numerous cuts that marked her skin. Must have done something really nasty to her insides, he mused. Maybe he should cut her up afterwards and see.

"Please ..." She whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Yes?" He leant closer, an attentive smile on his lips. "Tell daddy what you want!"

"No more!" Her warm breath caressed his skin. "Please ... no more!"

He waited. She knew everything he knew, knew his methods, knew his preferences. Knew which words she would have to say to make him stop this.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Just kill me, please!" She begged.

A wave of pleasure passed through his body. How long had it been since he had heard these words whispered to him, whispered by a beautiful female voice filled with pain and surrender. It even made him forget the weird itching he had felt ever since he had started torturing her.

"Now you're making me happy, my dear." He said, non too gently patting her cheek. "You want it to be over?"

"Please ..."

"I though we were made of sterner stuff. But then again, you're just the human side, aren't you? The human that held me back, even before the soul. That little leftover humanity that prevented me from becoming all that I can be for so long."

His face grew angry as he spoke, demon features warping with fury.

"I should have done this a long, long time ago, Angela! Ah, if only I had known about the magic of this Toth creature before. How much time I wasted living a pseudo-human existence, wrapping myself up in their meaningless luxuries, enjoying their deaths one at a time."

His hand gripped her around the throat, wrenching her off her feet.

"Time to say goodbye, Angela!" He snarled into her face as she dangled in his grip, too weak to even raise her arms. "It wasn't much fun knowing you. And don't you worry about Buffy and the rest of the world. They'll follow you real soon."

His fingers found the large knife lying on the table close by, the one he had saved for this very moment. Shining and new, never used before, never to be used again. He would leave the blood on it, he would put it in a display case somewhere. The knife that finally freed him of his humanity.

"Farewell, Angela!" He whispered, bringing the knife to her throat.

"Oh no, you don't!" Someone yelled behind him, accompanied by the familiar sound of a vampire exploding into dust. Letting go of Angela Angelus spun around, only to come face to face with the Slayer.

"Buffy!" He sighed, grinning. "I was hoping you'd make it."

She gripped the sword she carried, glaring at him.

"You think I'd miss this?"

He studied her for a moment, looking into her eyes. She was desperate, he could almost smell it on her. Her entire world was falling apart and she was this close to despairing. But not quite close enough. There was steel in her eyes as well. She would see this through to the end, he realized.

Well, at least his human half had had the decency to fall for someone with some backbone.

Angelus considered the options for a moment. He was much stronger than her now, he knew. Ever since he had gotten rid of his humanity (though not completely) he had grown stronger and stronger. She was no match for him any longer.

She was armed, though, with a sword that looked very much like the one still protruding from Akathler's stone chest. Probably magic. Not the thing he wanted to face without a suitable weapon of his own.

"Take her!" He yelled at the two minions still standing beside the stone demon.

Buffy was obviously surprised that he didn't attack himself and it took her precious moments to defend herself before she could even think about going on the offensive herself. Angelus used his time well. He still had the knife in hand. The knife intended to shed only the blood of his human half.

"Well," he mumbled, "it's close enough."

He drew the blade across his palm, opening up a bleeding wound. Angela screamed as if in pain, but he didn't pay any attention to that. He had better things to do than listen to her scream.

Not much better, though, he admitted.

"Not so fast, poof!" A body barreled into him without warning, tackling him to the ground. Looking up, Angelus saw the bloody mess that was Spike. He was almost impressed.

Spike tried to throw a punch at him, but he was so slow that even the old Angelus would have been able to see it coming a mile away. He easy caught Spike's fist and applied pressure, forcing the younger vampire to his knees.

"I don't know where you found the strength to do this, boy," Angelus growled, "but I really don't have the time to be proud of you right now."

With that he reached down and broke Spike's neck with a single twist. His childe sagged to the ground, unmoving. A broken neck wouldn't kill a vampire, of course, but in a few minutes that wouldn't matter anymore.

"Bad Spike!" Drusilla commented from the sidelines, seemingly not interested to get involved in the fighting. She had too much fun watching her daddy.

Buffy disposed of the last minion, beheading him with the sword, when Angelus reached Akathler.

"No!" Buffy screamed.

With his blood still on his hand Angelus grabbed the handle of the sword, a bright light surrounding him. He had tried this once before, sans his own blood, and had paid for it. Not this time, though. This time there was no pain. Only a rumble as if the very ground beneath him was waking up from a deep sleep.

Angelus drew the sword out of Akathler and turned to face the Slayer.

"Time for the final round, love!" He whispered, even as the demon behind him slowly began to awaken.

-----------------------------------------

Part 12

#

There was no more pain.

Was she already dead then? The absence of pain couldn't be a good thing, could it? Or maybe it could, seeing as death was what she wanted. Wanted for herself, wanted for him who was still a part of her, no matter how much she hated that fact. He! Angelus! If she was dead then he had to be, too.

Her ears were filled with a roaring sound, nothing she could make sense of. There was more sensation. Cold metal against her wrists, yet it didn't hurt anymore. Traces of warmth trickling down her skin, but she barely felt it.

Cold! She felt so very cold.

"Angela!" Someone whispered to her. Someone who stood close, so close that she could almost feel the heat radiating off his body. She wanted to feel warm again. Like when the sun had fallen on her face. When she had heard the beating of her heart inside her chest.

The beating. It was still there.

"No!" She whispered. If this was real, if she was still alive ...

"Angela, wake up!" The voice again, still closer. She felt someone touching her, someone with warm fingers that wound around her wrists and made the cold metal go away. Someone who caught her as she fell, not an ounce of strength left inside her battered flesh, and lowered her gently to the ground.

"I need you to wake up, Angela!" Xander? Was that Xander's voice? She wasn't sure. "I'll be back in a sec, okay? Gotta check on Giles."

His warm presence vanished, replaced by the cold. So much cold, seeping into her bones from all sides. She knew that cold. She had felt it for so long that she had stopped noticing it. But she had been warm. For a few short months she had been warm.

Someone was screaming. No, not screaming. Roaring. An animal sound no human could possibly produce. A monster's growl of anger and hatred. It took nearly all of her remaining strength, but Angela managed to force her eyes open.

"No!" She whispered again, seeing what was before her.

Buffy and Angelus were fighting with swords, grim determination on the Slayer's face, pure animal rage on the demon's. They moved so fast their features blurred, Angela barely able to follow their movements. Both of them delivered blows that would have sheared a human in half in a second, pushing against each other with all their strength.

And Buffy was losing.

"Come now, Slayer!" Angelus growled, forcing her back step by step. "At least give me a good fight here! Do you want everyone to say you went out like a weakling?"

Buffy didn't jibe and pun as she usually did, her face was pure concentration. Sweat was pouring down her brow, her eyes never moving away from the flashing steel and the demonic eyes of her opponent. Angela had never seen her this focused, this determined. Any other opponent would have fallen to her long ago.

Not Angelus. He had grown larger, Angela realized, towering over the Slayer even more than he usually did. His features retained but the barest remnant of his lost humanity, demon eyes blazing with rage and desires that were normally buried deep in the darkest recesses of the human mind. There was nothing holding him back anymore, though. No limits, no inhibitions.

He was unbeatable.

Buffy was half a second too slow and Angelus' sword flashed out to draw the first blood. The Slayer stumbled backwards, her clothing cut open from shoulder to hip, a bloody scar trailing down her body.

Angelus paused to lick the blood off the blade with a long, slow stroke of his tongue.

"Delicious." He whispered, staring at Buffy.

Buffy was breathing heavily, holding the remains of her shirt together. Blood was flowing down her legs, staining her pants.

"Xander!" Angela called out, her voice barely audible. "Xander, come here!"

She wasn't sure whether he heard her, but a few moments later he was by her side, a barely conscious Giles slung over his shoulder.

"Let's get out of here!" He whispered, watching the battle with one eye. Only now did she notice that he had one arm in a cast.

"No!" She shook her head. "I ... Buffy will lose. She can't defeat him."

"Of course she can." Xander insisted. "She is the Slayer. She can beat anything."

"Not him! We have to help her!"

He gave her a strange look, silently asking what she thought they could do. They were all just human. Giles was a bloody mess, as was Angela, and Xander had but one usable arm. One arm was just enough for what Angela had in mind, though.

She gestured toward the knife that was lying on the floor not two steps away.

"What ...?" Xander asked, confused.

"Use the knife, Xander!" She said, swallowing the blood pooling in her mouth. "Use it! Kill me!"

"What?" He almost yelled, remembering at the last second that it probably wasn't wise to call attention to them right now. "Are you nuts?"

"If I die, so does he!" Angela reminded him, finding it harder and harder to speak. She felt cold, so very cold. "You have to do it!"

"I ... I can't! You c-can't expect me to ..."

"If you don't then Buffy will die. To be followed by every living human being on this planet. Including me. I'm dead either way, Xander! Do it now! While Buffy is still alive."

Sliding Giles off his shoulder Xander looked over at the battle, Buffy barely able to defend herself now. Another cut had joined the first, her left arm crimson with her own blood. Angelus wasn't even scratched and seemed to grow stronger with every passing second.

"Do it!" Angela hissed, managing to sit up a little from where she sat against the wall. "Do it now!"

Xander looked into her eyes for a long, long moment, then turned to get the knife. Relieved she sunk back against the wall. This was it then. Finally, after all these years, she wouldn't feel the cold anymore.

Angela looked up to see Xander standing above her, the blade in hand.

"Angela, I ..." He began, the knife shaking as he held it.

"Do it! Please!"

She wished she could spare him this, spare him the nightmares he would no doubt have to suffer from after doing this. But it had to be done and she didn't have the strength to do it herself.

Xander closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened them again the knife was steady in his hand.

"Goodbye, Angela!" He whispered, raising the knife.

Angela closed her eyes, waiting for the moment of release.

Only it never came. Xander yelped and there was the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Angela forced her eyes back open and Xander was no longer standing in front of her. Instead he was on the floor, some distance away, and Drusilla was clawing at him with long nails, her face a mask of demon fury.

"No, you won't!" She screeched, slashing into his skin. "I can see it! You want to take daddy away! I won't let you!"

Angela cursed. She had forgotten all about Drusilla. Her mad childe would kill Xander and even if he somehow managed to survive, he wouldn't be in any condition to do what had to be done. He wouldn't be able to kill her.

Desperate Angela looked at Giles, but the Watcher was out cold, lying only a few feet away. Where was the knife? Maybe she still had enough strength to do it herself. Just take the knife and slit her own throat. Couldn't be that hard. Where was the knife?

She saw a glint of steel. Just behind the struggling pair of Xander and Drusilla. Hopelessly out of reach.

Collapsing back against the wall in defeat Angela could only watch as Angelus struck the sword from Buffy's hand, leaving her defenseless before him. Without waiting for her to grasp the situation he thrust forward and ran her right through the shoulder.

Buffy screamed.

"Yes, lover!" Angelus whispered, twisting the sword in her wound. "Scream for me! Let this be the sound that rings in the end of your world!"

It couldn't end this way! There had to be something left that she could do. Something she could use to kill herself, some way she could keep Angelus from killing Buffy.

Her roaming eyes found the remains of her clothes, carelessly dropped to the floor where Angelus had cut them away. Something white was sticking out of her pants' pockets. A piece of paper.

For a moment she felt the cold like never before. She knew what was on that paper.

Buffy screamed again, her small hands wrapped around the blade as Angelus twisted it even further. There was so much blood.

Angela closed her eyes, fighting down the despair welling up inside her. If this was the only way to save her, if no other way remained ...

Thrusting herself to the side with everything she had left Angela fell to the floor, her hand just reaching the piece of paper. Pulling it out of the pocket and unfolding it nearly caused her to black out, a puddle of blood gathering where she lay on the floor. She was hurt badly, but not dying. Not fast enough at least.

There was no other way.

"The two that are one," she whispered, her voice hoarse but still working, "let them be one again. What magic has sundered, let magic reunite. Good and evil, light and dark, unite in shadow once more."

Angelus roared, turning away from Buffy to look at her. Something was happening, he knew. Something that was pulling at his very being, something that seemed to draw him towards his human half where she lay on the floor.

"What are you doing?" He screamed, fighting against the pull.

"Divided we die," she continued, barely able to read the words anymore, but her lips pronouncing them almost by themselves now, "together we live. My flesh to yours, yours to mine, one until the end of time."

"No!" Angelus roared, tearing the sword out of Buffy's shoulder in a shower of crimson. The Slayer crumbled to the floor as he ran toward Angela, the sword raised for a killing blow.

"So mote it be!" Angela whispered, the paper falling from her cold fingers.

Everything went black a second before Angelus reached her and the last she heard were his screams and her own heartbeat.

Then both stopped.

-----------------------------------------

Part 13

#

Buffy almost blacked out from the pain when Angelus tore the sword from her shoulder. Her legs gave out and she slid to the floor, sheer determination keeping her conscious. She had lost a lot of blood and was tired, so very tired, but she couldn't fall into the soothing embrace of unconsciousness. Not yet.

Something had happened. Something that had distracted Angelus when he had been about to kill her. She had heard him scream, had heard his animal growl. Had heard it stop suddenly.

What was going on?

Her hands were hurting so much. She had grabbed the naked blade of Angelus' sword, had tried to pull it out or at least prevent him from twisting it further inside her wound. She had only achieved getting her palms sliced open, though, deep cuts bleeding profusely.

Pushing down on the shock and numbness that seemed to wrap itself around her brain like a soft blanket Buffy rose back to her feet, trying to see past the dark spots she saw in front of her eyes.

There was Giles, out like a light, leaning against the wall. Her Watcher needed a hospital, but she couldn't think about that now. She saw Spike on the floor, his neck standing off at an impossible angle, but he was slowly moving, his broken bones knitting back together with agonizing slowness. There was Xander, prone, Drusilla standing close by but it seemed she wasn't paying any attention to him at all. The mad vampire was staring at something else. Someone else.

Close by the wall, the very spot where Angelus had chained Angela, there was a body on the floor. A body clothed in black silk and leather. Angelus? No, it was too small for that. Angela? No, she had been practically nude just a second or two ago, bleeding from more wounds than Buffy dared to count. It couldn't be her, either, could it?

It was as if ...

Buffy's thoughts came to a screeching halt as she realized exactly what had happened.

"Daddy?" Drusilla slowly walked closer to the prone body, her face back to human and looking like that of a frightened child. "Say something, daddy!"

The prone form stirred, but made no sound. Dru walked closer still, leaning over the body and reaching out to touch it.

"Daddy?"

Without warning the dark-clothed figure sprang into action, rising to a kneeling position and driving the sword that had been hidden beneath it deep into Drusilla's chest. Buffy saw a pale face, the shimmer of dark brown hair. Human eyes filled with pain and confusion.

"Angela!" She yelled, even as Drusilla stumbled away, looking at the sword protruding from her chest as if it was a very, very strange thing. Angela crumbled back to the floor, nails digging hard into the cold stone floor.

"Daddy's gone!" Drusilla wailed, falling to her knees. "It's not daddy!"

Angela screamed, throwing her head back as her body convulsed. With wide eyes Buffy saw a scene almost identical to the one that had taken place but three months ago in Angela's apartment. Her face was changing from human to demon and back again almost too fast to watch, her skin rippling as if something inside was trying to break free, something much too big to fit inside this small body.

Something that was back inside now, Buffy realized. Something Angela had taken back to save her life.

Drusilla collapsed, the sword still impaling her, but Buffy paid her no mind. Pushing the pain away she stumbled over to where Angela was on the floor, her screams reduced to whimpers. Falling to the floor right beside her Buffy put a hand on her shoulder.

A shoulder that was cold as ice.

"Angela, it's me!" Buffy whispered. "Can you hear me?"

The vampire was pressing her hands to her ears, trying to block out a voice that was screaming inside her head. The voice of a deranged demon, angered beyond all possible measure at being imprisoned once more. Memories flooded into her mind, memories of a time when she had been free, a time she had been a man once more, enjoying himself to the fullest and living out all his desires.

Dozens, hundreds of faces flashed past her. Eyes whose light she/he had extinguished, lives she/he had snuffed in those brief months of freedom. Almost drowned out by it all was a roar of frustration, uttered in equal parts by the human and the demon, at finding themselves victim to the curse once more. Once again (or still) imprisoned inside female flesh, a body not their own.

"Not again!" Angela cried. "Not again!"

"Angela!" Buffy tried to soothe her somehow, oblivious to her own wounds now. Angela was in pain, so much pain, and all because she had once again saved her life. She had taken the demon back inside to save her, had damned herself all over again.

All for her.

"Come back to me, please!" Buffy whispered.

Angela finally grew calm. Her once again pale skin was still sprinkled with bruises and cuts, but not nearly as many as Buffy had seen on her human half just ten minutes ago and they were all healing fast. Buffy doubted Angela was even aware of them. Angelus' clothes hung loosely on her smaller frame, the few remains of the clothes he had ripped from her body scattered all around her. She shivered in Buffy's arms and not just because she was so cold. Cold all over, through and through, as she had been for so long.

Buffy didn't know how long it took, but Angela finally opened her eyes and looked up at her with brown orbs shimmering with tears.

"Buffy." She choked, still shaking with sobs. "Oh my God!"

"I'm here, Angela." Buffy held her tight. "I'm here, don't worry about thing! It'll be all right! I promise it'll be all right."

She remembered everything. Everything Angelus had done. All the things he had done and tried to do to Buffy, to her friends and family. She remembered Jenny Calendar, beating the Gypsy woman within an inch of her life after Drusilla saw in her visions that she was close to uncovering something about the spell that could spell doom for Angelus. She remembered fighting Buffy, remembered driving the sword into her shoulder and twisting the blade, relishing her screams.

"I'm so sorry, Buffy." Angela squeezed her eyes shut, but the pictures didn't stop. "I'm so sorry."

"It wasn't you!" Buffy repeated over and over as she cried. "You saved me, Angela. You saved all our lives."

Suddenly a growl filled the room, causing the entire mansion to shiver as if in fear. A light chased the shadows away, causing both Buffy and Angela to look up at the source of it.

"No!" Buffy whispered, shaking her head in denial.

Akathler was coming awake. His mouth was wide open, air streaming into his mouth as he took his first breath and his eyes began to glow. Slowly a vortex began to form in front of him, a swirl of flame and light, growing larger.

Wind was picking up inside the room.

"I pulled the sword from the stone." Angela realized, looking down at her hands. The cut she ... no, Angelus had made there was healed already, but the memory was clear before her eyes. Blood on his hand, cold fingers closing around the hilt of the sword.

Angela looked up at Buffy, desperation in her eyes. No way was this going to happen! She wouldn't allow it! Not now, not after everything she had sacrificed to ensure Buffy would live. She wouldn't allow the world to fall screaming into Hell. Wasn't it enough that she had taken the demon back inside?

"We have to stop this!" Angela told Buffy, who was staring at the growing vortex. "There has to be some way to stop this."

She searched her memories, tried finding a way out of this catastrophe. Her head was filled with knowledge about Akathler, things she had learned as human, things she had learned as Angelus, knowledge gained from torturing Giles. But none of that told her what to do now. What could be done if the vortex was already open.

A look into Buffy's eyes, though, when she finally met her gaze told her all she needed to know.

"My blood." Angela whispered, the pieces clicking together inside her head. "It will take my blood."

She stared at the second sword, still on the floor where Buffy had dropped it. Buffy followed her gaze.

"No!" The Slayer shook her head, jumping to her feet. "I won't allow this, Angela! Not now! Not after what you did already!"

The demon inside her screamed, telling her to let the world go to Hell like it deserved, but a strange calm fell over Angela. Was this the price then? Taking back the demon was not enough to pay for all she had done it seemed. No, there was this last thing she had to do.

And maybe ... maybe it would give her peace.

"There is no choice, Buffy." Angela rose to her feet as well, walking toward the discarded sword on surprisingly steady legs.

"No!" Buffy stumbled after her, light headed from blood loss and on the verge of panicking. "We'll find another way, Angela!"

The vampire picked up the sword, looking at the growing vortex.

"There is no time, Buffy."

"Don't!" The Slayer pleaded, standing between her and the vortex. "Please!"

Angela, realizing she would never step aside, reared back and struck Buffy down with a single blow. She fell to the ground, trembling on the verge of unconsciousness. Even now she was still fighting, fighting to stay awake, to get back up, but it was a losing battle. Angela looked down at her and smiled a sad smile.

"Goodbye, Buffy." She whispered. "Just remember I'll always love you."

Then the vampire called Angela, whole once more, stepped toward Akathler's vortex and raised the sword.

-----------------------------------------

Epilogue:

Xander came awake some time later, shaking off the cobwebs. The last thing he remembered was Drusilla hitting him, then everything had gone black. He hadn't actually expected to wake up again, truth be told.

"Guys?" He called out, his eyes refusing to focus. "What happened? Did we win?"

No one answered and when the world around him finally stopped being a blur he looked around the remains of the battleground.

Spike was gone, no trace of him to be found. He didn't see Drusilla, either, though there was a path of bloody footsteps, made by someone wearing heels, leading out the front door. Xander didn't shed more than a brief thought on the two vampires, though.

Two people were kneeling on the floor a few feet away from him, right in front of the big stone demon everyone had been fighting about. The sword was no longer sticking out of his chest, but neither was there any kind of vortex or world-sucking portal. The thing looked almost harmless.

One of the two people was Giles, though it took Xander a moment to recognize him. The Watcher was a mess, practically every inch of him covered in bruises and cuts. One of his eyes was swollen shut, his glasses nowhere to be seen. The one eye Xander could see was clear, though. Clear and filled with sorrow.

He was holding Buffy close. The Slayer was buried in his bloody chest, her small body rocking with sobs. Her clothing was covered with dried blood, but her wounds seemed well on the way towards healing. Xander couldn't see her face, but there was no doubt she was crying. Crying harder than he had ever seen anyone cry.

"I love you, too." He heard her whisper, over and over again. "I love you, too."

She wouldn't say anything else.

THE END


End file.
